Entertainment center consoles of varying constructs have long been used to support television sets and house the various electronic accessories, such as cable converter boxes, VCR's and satellite receivers, which often accompany them. However, with the rise in popularity of flat panel televisions, which tend to be lighter and smaller than their predecessor televisions of comparable monitor size, stands of various configurations for enabling televisions to be mounted to walls or suspended from ceilings have been developed in the prior art. In many homes and other facilities, such stands have largely replaced entertainment center consoles due to the fact that they occupy considerably less space. Consequently, wall-mounted open shelves have become popular means for supporting the electronic accessories that were previously stored in entertainment console cabinets. However, some consumers prefer electronics mounting solutions other than horizontal shelves. Among other things, open shelves present the dangerous specter of equipment cascading down from them and landing upon unsuspecting children who may have occasion to tug on the equipment cords.
Mounting apparatuses that provide adjustable perimeter support for electronic devices have been developed as well. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,318,692 to Cyrell discloses an adjustable framing support system comprised of elongate side frame components which are connected by corner frame components to form a typically rectangular enclosure. The side components slide relative to the corner components, and the all have a continuous internal slot through which a cable is threaded so that the entire frame circumference contracts in response to the cable being drawn. This support system is to be placed around the lateral perimeter of an electronic device and adjusted to snugly fit thereabout. Another example is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,460,817 to Bosson. Specifically, Bosson teaches a perimeter support frame constructed of four L-shaped pieces that are in sliding relation to form a rectangular enclosure that adjustably fits around the lateral perimeter of an electronic device. The frame can be mounted to a horizontal or vertical surface to suspend the equipment from the floor. It is anticipated that the Bosson support is to be used to hold computer central processing units, but it certainly could be used to retain other types of electronic devices.
Nevertheless, there remains a need for an improved, space efficient holding apparatus that can be adjusted to fit snugly around a box-shaped electronic device so that it cannot be accidentally dislodged from the holding apparatus and that configured to mount to a vertical surface, such as a wall or the side of an entertainment center. The present invention substantially fulfills this need.